Point of View

 

Point of view has more to do with reality than facts. Take, for instance, the consultant from Sears who drove from Seattle to give us an estimate on replacement windows for our house.

He was just a few minutes late, which I consider on time for anyone who has to drive I-5 north of Lynwood, but it turns out that he could have been on time except he stopped down the road at the park entrance to stretch and refresh before coming here. A chatty man, like salesmen often are, he told us that as he stretched his legs around the parking lot, he heard water, so he followed a trail a few hundred feet, and there was running water! And he sounded delighted and amazed by it!

Sorry about the excess exclamation points, but in addition to his delight was my surprise that he found that interesting.

I know that there are recordings of various water sounds that are sold to insomniacs who think that noise will help them relax. I shake my head in consternation whenever I hear someone talk about putting water features in their home or garden. My dentist has one in his office, and I am going to find a new dentist. Nothing gives me that 'grate on the back of the neck where my head attaches to the spinal column' worse than the noise of running water. A single drip from a faucet in the middle of the night has me running to the garage for a pipe wrench. More often the sound of running water indicates a deluge overflowing my gutters that will soon flood the basement and garage unless I put on my boots and start bailing. Sometimes the sound of running water just means the toilet handle needs an extra jiggle, but it could just as easily be that a stellar jay or squirrel has jammed a peanut into the flashing around the vent above the microwave.

The point is, I can't think of any running water sound that brings good.

During the course of the salesman's visit we learned that he had just moved to the region from Arizona. He really looked forward to fishing, but were there any lakes around that weren't brackish? No, we assured him, more water went into the ocean than washed back up out of it. The lakes and rivers were snow melt from the mountains. I can't even estimate how many times he turned the conversation from home improvement to water.

For him, water was full of fish and hope. For me, water means mildew around the window frames, so we have to replace them.

Nancy Sherer

 

 


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